Valhall life of field seismic: Permanent, on-demand 4D ///

Valhall field is at once the best and the worst place to carry out a grand experiment in time-lapse seismic. It is the best place because of its complexity, which can only be broached by the very best in seismic imaging technology. But that same complexity also makes it one of the worst places to try the world's first, serious attempt at permanent 4D seismic on demand. The reservoir is undergoing considerable subsidence, and an upcoming waterflood project may dissolve, harden, fracture, solidify and otherwise have unpredictable effects on the reservoir's fragile chalk. Because a gas cloud all but prevents imaging with conventional seismic, multicomponent sensors become the only way to go, in what is easily a bold foray into the future by the Valhall partners. It's the remaining reserves – some 500,000 to 600,000 thousand remaining barrels of oil that is driving this effort, combined with the fact that only superior reservoir understanding and management will allow their economic recovery.